Hello Friends and welcome to the blog today. 

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It’s Monday afternoon coffee time, and I’m here to spill a little.

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I hope everyone had a great weekend, as we head into the 2nd week of December, with winter weather and the Holiday spirit.

I mentioned on Friday after posting at 2 pm that it was the week of weeks last week where everything that could happen…happened when it comes to this website…so it’s story time people.

Website Breach

Let’s start with an email I got from DreamHost (my hosting site), that my website, little ole Life By Wyetha had been breached.  My first thought was, why would anyone care about my journal stories, decor ideas, and DIYs.

But yes it was breached, and that can wreak all types of havoc on a website.  I will say that my hosting platform (Dreamhost) has been awesome throughout this whole issue but going through the site blogs, instructions were like reading a different language.

I don’t consider myself to be all that tech savvy but I’ve navigated the waters of creating a website from scratch, learning HTML, and some beginner CSS.  It’s the reason why I can get my website to function the way that it does, and look exactly how I like.

So my week began with correcting this issue by running extra checks, virus scans, updating passwords, I mean you name it, I ran it. So after some cursing, and a little patience it was all done, and that was Monday.

My Website Said…I Quit!

Wednesday I decided not to post as my typical schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday because I just wasn’t feeling motivated and my workday was busy.  But as you know if you have a website it never stops with just posting.  If I’m not posting I’m achieving, updating photos, and all-around maintenance so I was prepping and preparing.

Issue #1 – I noticed that on the admin side my website was running really slow.  I attributed this to a WordPress update and kept trying to work through it.  But it was so slow, like pages taking 5 minutes (or longer) to load slow.

Issue #2 – On top of the slowness my Monster Insights (this is where I retrieve my web stats) would not load.  I kept getting a JavaScript error message and while I know a little bit about my site I was clueless as to what this was.

What is Javascript?

JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages — every time a web page does more than just sit there and display static information for you to look at — displaying timely content updates, interactive maps, animated 2D/3D graphics, scrolling video jukeboxes, etc. — you can bet that JavaScript is probably involved. (Source: MDN WebDocs)

So I Googled what I could, read some blogs, and tried to fix the problem according to the error message that Monster Insights was giving me to no avail. I figured I would let all the fixes I did run, and revisit this on Thursday, as it was already about 2 am, and my webpages would barely load.

Thursday, I had the same issues and I spent some of the day, trying to figure out what was happening and it was at this point that my website said: “I Quit”.

Help!!!

I know what your thinking the first thing to do is reach out to WordPress (right) to ask them to help me as I have paid for my domain name on this side of things … but let me tell you a little bit about WordPress Forums. (#noshade)  They NEVER answer, and when they do it’s weeks later, and by then you’ve figured out the problem.  Maybe their service is more helpful if you host with them, but I wouldn’t know.

Now…not to throw them completely under the bus there is a help chat you can reach out to but since WordPress is not my hosting site, they really can’t help, so I decided to take my panicked “bee-hind” over to Dreamhost and tell them everything that was happening.

As they checked my website site I was hit with…

“The site is exceeding the allocated resource limit set for it on the shared server. This is what is causing the site to be slow and the Javascript install to fail.”

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So my first response was help what do I do, then my eyes glazed over as the support rep talked about clearing my cache, reducing storage usage, and few more things and by this point, I was ready to throw in the towel because everything he was saying was over my head.

Ok breathe, relax, you can do this. (whoo-sah)  I know the support rep said something about switching to a VPS because a private server would give me the resources I needed to run my website, but as you know switching wasn’t free, so I had to figure out if it was worth it to spend this extra money.

What is VPS?

A server is a powerful computer that stores all of the data and files that make up your website. When someone types your domain name into their web browser, that powerful computer “serves up” your website to the searcher’s screen.

Now for the virtual aspect: VPS uses virtualization technology to split that one powerful server we just talked about into multiple virtual servers. Think of it this way: it’s one piece of physical hardware that functions like several separate servers.

The word private means just what it implies. Your virtual server is reserved for you, so you won’t have to share RAM, CPU, or any data with other users. (Source: Dreamhost)

What I decided…

Truth be told, I don’t make a lot when it comes to affiliates on this site.  It’s just enough to keep this blog humming, so I had to justify spending a little more when more isn’t coming.  It came down to how much of my blood sweat, and tears I’ve poured into this blog so at that point, I had convinced myself that it was ok.

So after some searching and figuring out if this is something I want to pay for I decided, for now, this will do, so I made the switch to VPS, and after I waited several hours and went through Dreamhost customer support, the switch was made, but my website still wasn’t working. In fact, the entire site wouldn’t even load. Aghrrrrr!

Dreamhost Is Going To be Sick of Me…

So back to Dreamhost I went to find out what was happening with my site because after all that work I was done.  Here is where the magic happens.  Dreamhost (under the chat customer support) logs your chats so every time someone new helps you, the history of your conversation is there for you and the rep to see.  

This rep took a while but I was now hit with … 

The paths to the JS and CSS of the site are having issues, there’s a problem with the folder structure of the site.

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What, so what does this mean, and how do I fix it.  I had no idea by this point but then Dreamhost says …  

We’ll take care of this for you, no worries. Please stay with me for a few more minutes. 

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That’s what I’m talking about, and that’s the type of AWESOME customer service that I’m talking about (#shamelessplug). Am I boosting up Dreamhost.  Absolutely, because hands down, I didn’t know what I was doing and through this process, they took care of everything.

Thinking of a Webhosting Site?

So if you’re looking for a web hosting platform with stellar-top-notch customer service, someone to hold your hand and walk you through the process of setting up your site, when you feel like something you worked so hard on is blowing up, then Dreamhost is for you.  Their customer service responded to me in under 15-minutes, and I’m over-the-moon happy with the overall outcome.

So I know this post was long, and made longer because was finished at 11 am, but didn’t save the draft, and with one click 50% was gone, then you, my friend are AWE-SOME!  Thanks for continuing to support me and thanks for returning.  I love ya’ll and I’ll see you back here on Friday.

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Header Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash